COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. U C MAHATAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The following question of law Under Section 256(1) of the I.T. Act, 1961, has been referred by the Tribunal to this court :

(2.) The dispute in this case relates to the properties at Nos. 2 and 4, Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta. The ITO had completed the assessment of the assessee for the assessment year 1966-67 without including the income from those properties. The Addl. CIT, West Bengal, Under Section 263 of the I.T. Act, 1961, revised that order, as, in his view, the ITO's order was erroneous and prejudicial to the interest of the Revenue. He, therefore, directed the ITO to revise the assessment by including the income from the properties at Nos. 2 and 4, Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta, in the assessee's income.

(3.) Before the Tribunal reliance was placed on behalf of the assessee on the order of the Tribunal in the case of the assessee for the earlier assessment years, in I.T.A. Nos. 1264 to 1268 of 1971-72. In view of the above order, the Tribunal in this year also held that the income from properties at Nos. 2 and 4, Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta, did not belong to the assessee and the income was not assessable in the hands of the assessee. This judgment was delivered on the assumption of fact that the assessee was the holder of an impartible estate known as " Burdwan Raj " and these two properties formed part of the impartible estate. Neither the assessee nor the Revenue raised any question about the character of the two properties in dispute in this case before the Tribunal. The only argument on behalf of the Revenue was that the Tribunal's order in the earlier year was erroneous in law and a reference application against that order was pending in the High Court.